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incredible (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
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[–] 68 points 3 years ago (7 children)

Skip electricity. That doesn't matter until you can make reliable turbines with copper and magnets. Go to steam power first. It can move things. Which will speed up delivery of copper and magnets. But also teach them to plant trees. Every tree removed to smelt and power a steam engine needs to have three more planted. You could start greening the Sahara before umit even starts collapsing. "he sure had this steam thing figured out. I guess we will forgive him for all these useless trees".

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I read they knew about steam power for a long time but couldn't make the engines / containers / doohickies strong enough to contain the pressure.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago

    Yes, electricity would be magic for medieval (and prior) people. Spells trouble for you.

    But no, Steam... the principle was known and seldom used by ancient greeces and egypts already, but they couldn't really utilize it, because metallurgy wasn't there yet.

    And Sahara was almost green 1000+ years ago, lots of oases.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Is there a guide for DIY steam engines?

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Boil water in a closed system that uses steam to move a paddle on the inside that is on the same shaft as a wheel on the outside. That's the basics. Everything else is just variations on the theme. The higher the pressure the faster it goes and more torque you get.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I guess I forgot to mention that once the steam moves the paddle the steam needs a place to cook down and go back into the boiler.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago

    Nah, for a first step implementation in stationary applications, you can have a steam machine run an open circuit. Steam expands, performs work, exits through a valve. Just keep the water tank filled. Less efficient, but it would work. The return loop is an optimization for the next stage :)

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Go to steam power first. It can move things

    They had steam power over 2000 years ago, they used it in temples and as toys to amuse the rich.

    Slaves could move things, and were much cheaper.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    They might have had it, but they didn't use it right

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    They had no incentive to use it any better.

    Without a printing press, which would increase the levels of literacy, and allow sharing knowledge orders of magnitude faster, there was no indication that a kettle could ever outperform a hundred men or a few dozen horses.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    It's a loop - they didn't use it right, so it sucked, which is why they didn't try to make it better = they didn't use it right.

    With the right knowledge, they might've just made proper use of it

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    The problem with this is that you assume that wood is the best fuel source for steam. Very quickly you would realize that coal is far more energy dense than just about anything except nuclear fission. Planting trees is still a good idea though, but wood as fuel is utter shite on any large application.

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